Michaels brothers were foes in SB III

Over and over Mary Michaels was asked the same question leading up to Super Bowl III in 1969.

Which team would she be rooting for? Would it be Lou's Baltimore Colts or Walt's New York Jets?

As it turned out, the mother of Lou and Walt Michaels never divulged her answer the question.

"She had no answer," Lou Michaels said. "It was one of those things where she said she was not declaring. After the Jets beat us she went over to Walt's for their party. That was good, you have to be with the winner."

Long before Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers and John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens punched their tickets for Super Bowl XLVII tonight in New Orleans, the Michaels brothers from Swoyersville were the first to be a part of the Super Bowl on opposing teams.

"Mom said she wished it would end up in a tie but it couldn't end up that way," Walt said. "She politely said to us the tougher ones on the day of the game would win the game. She knew enough about it. You better be tough enough."

Lou Michaels, who is now 77 and resides in Swoyersville, was a kicker/defensive end for the Baltimore Colts while Walt Michaels was the defensive backs coach for the New York Jets working for head coach Weeb Ewbank.

Super Bowl III helped launch the Super Bowl into the mega event it is today. The AFL's Jets, led by quarterback Joe Namath, defeated the NFL's Colts, 16-7. The Jets came into the game an 18-point underdog.

"It was more or less playing against each other to see who gets the bragging rights," Lou said. "Winning is the only thing. Everybody keeps asking what happened. I try to explain in common sense that on that day they were better than us. There are not too many answers we can give. We made mistakes in our game that we did not make all during the year."

Mary Michaels was the only family member to make the trip to Miami. The rest of the Michaels clan stayed home and watched the game on television.

During the week leading up to the game there was very little interaction between the Michaels brothers.

"Come game time and you are in the locker and on the field warming up, everybody on the other side is the enemy," said Walt, who is now 84 and lives in Shickshinny. "Lou and I, when we played, the season was off limits. We never really talked unless it was casual."

There was no conversation between the two immediately following the game.

Walt was celebrating his team's win while Lou and the rest of the Colts were trying to comprehend what had gone wrong. The two didn't discuss the game until the following week when Walt stopped in Lou's bar, the L&M in Kingston.

"We didn't talk too much, one of us lost," said Lou, the fourth overall pick by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1958 draft. "We didn't have much conversation until we came back. He stopped in and we talked. You had to let it wear off."

The Jets came into the game looking to take away the Baltimore passing game, wanting the Colts to run the ball. That meant the Walt's linebackers and defensive back played deeper than they had all year.

"We did not discuss very much football together unless we were at some type of clinic," Walt said. "To say we would sit down and talk football, no. If there was a group of people around and Lou and I were there, then it became kind of a coaching clinic. During the week some of our players got to see Lou and they were kidding each other, bet me this bet me that. It's what you are going to do on Sunday afternoon that matters."

The Colts were able to score that day by running the football but it was not enough. Eventually mistakes (five turnovers) the Colts didn't make throughout the season came back to haunt them.

On the sidelines, as time on the clock was winding down Lou turned to Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas and asked him a question.

"I asked (Unitas) the big question," Lou remembered. "I said 'John, what am I going to tell the people from Swoyersville'? He looked at me and said "Lou, you tell them if I had three more minutes we would have won the game."

Walt, a five-time Pro Bowl selection during his playing days with the Cleveland Browns, remained with the Jets until 1973. He coached two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles then returned to Jets for a season before becoming head coach in 1977. In 1983, he coached the Jets to the AFC Championship game.

Lou's pro football career ended in 1971 with the Green Bay Packers.

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